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Plans to create a new park and children’s play area in central Leigh are being reconsidered following feedback from Leigh School.
Rodney Local Board allocated almost $1 million in its work programme and budget last year for a new playground and wheeled play area on the Auckland Council reserve on the corner of Puriri and Ferndale Avenues (MM, Aug 14, 2023).
This would have entailed relocating the existing skate park and other play equipment from the edge of the school sportsfield in Cumberland Street to the reserve site, which is currently used mainly for summer trailer and boat parking.
However, a board workshop heard last month that the school was keen to keep the skate park where it was, close to its own recently installed pump track, to create a community hub for wheel play.
Council’s senior project manager, Claire Bodmin, said the school management was happy for the pump track to be used by the public outside of school hours and was planning to install a concrete path around the sportsfield perimeter as a learn-to-ride, all-weather facility as well.
She said that, bearing this and the steepness of the existing site in mind, there was scope to split the play areas, with wheel play at the sportsfield and a new playground for younger children at the reserve.
Local member Ivan Wagstaff said the school and sportsfield were already a play hub for the community, with children using the school playground out-of-hours, as well as the community hall and school pool.
“I can’t see splitting the play areas gives much benefit really,” he said. “If we can make the unused reserve area that’s used for parking in summer all-weather, so that it can be used for other activities like year-round parking and other community events, that might be a better option. I’d be hesitant to split that play area up.”
He suggested providing the school with funding to upgrade its play equipment for general use instead of installing a whole new playground somewhere else.
Michelle Carmichael said it was easier for parents and carers to go to one spot if they had more than one child with them and agreed that supporting the school to provide something the whole community could use could be a better option.
Bodmin said their suggestions would be considered by the project team and a proposal brought back to the board for decision-making later.
